The Hero of Beasts
by Capnhttyd
Summary: Legend of Zelda AU: Hiccup always really liked the legend of the Hero of Time, you could say that he was Hiccup's hero. He'd often tell Astrid that he had always wished that he could meet the legendary hero, little did he know, he was looking right at her. Rated T for violence (Previously named The Hero Of Time)
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys, I know I probably should be working on Curse of the Blood moon right now, but I just got super into the Legend of Zelda series and I just had to write an AU about it. I think I'm going to put bits and pieces from a few of the actual games (like some characters, places, objects, bits of plot and other stuff like that), but other that that it will be it's own story. Sorry if this gets a bit rambly, I tried to fit some info about the games for people who aren't as familiar with it and it stops pretty fast, so if you have any advice on things I could improve on please tell me. And I wasn't sure if I should lable it as a cross over or not, and if you have any ideas for later in the story please tell me. That is about all I have to say for now.

Long ago there was a small village called Berk, it was located in the south-west of Hyrule. The village was so small there were only about fifty people who lived their, and there were only ten children, all of which were under the age of ten, except for two teenagers.

Hiccup and Astrid, both fifteen were the best of friends, and often would go exploring in the woods together, and they went on frequent camping trips, and they loved to tell different legends around their campfire. One of the many legends was about the Hero of Time, a young man who supposedly save their country centuries ago, and he was Hiccup's personal hero.

One night on one of their many camping trips whilst they sat around their campfire Hiccup pulled a large book out of his satchel with the Triforce one the cover.

"I was in the library this morning and found this!" He said and brushed the dust off the cover. "It's the legend of the Hero of Time!"

"Hiccup you've only told me this story, I don't know, a thousand times."

"I know, I know, but this is the original legend, not the one that has been passed down and messed up over the years." Hiccup exclaimed and smiled as he opened the book. "Can I please read it?"

"Sure. Go ahead." She sighed and sat down beside him.

"Hundreds of years ago there was a little boy living in Kokiri Forest with the Kokiri tribe, and he didn't have a fairy-"

"Hic I've heard this all before, is there anything new in their?" Astrid interrupted and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Give me a second." He said and flipped through the book until he got almost to the end of the book. "I haven't heard this before!"

"Then read it!"

"Okay, okay, after Link saved Hyrule from the infamous Ganondorf, Zelda sent him back o the past to live out his childhood. But because he was sent back he was never remembered as a hero. Link Lived out his life, got married and had kids, but was never able to pass on the "lessons of his life to those who came after him" and because he was never remembered as a hero he died full of regrets and will forever live in a cursed afterlife until one of his ancestors can ease his regrets."

"Well that was depressing." Astrid said and wrapped one arm around his shoulders. "So only one of his ancestors can ease his regrets, that is only if this guy did exist, but it seems pretty far fetched to me." She said as she traced a triangular birthmark on the back of her right hand.

"Ana said that Link did exist, the legend is just about the whole hero of time part."

"What does that have to do with anything, this happened HUNDREDS of years ago, how on earth would our librarian know anything about it."

"Well she said one of her ancestors knew-"

"How on earth would she know if one knew the Hero of Time?!"

"I-" He mumble then stared down at his feet. "I don't know, maybe your right, maybe believing all of this was stupid to begin with."

After realizing how heartbroken her best friend had become Astrid apologized immediately and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Hey, that doesn't mean he didn't exist Bud, I just have a hard time believing that Ana would know that distant ancestors knew him." She whispered. "Sorry for snapping at you."

"It's fine." He mumbled and leaned against her and pressed his face against her neck.

"Hey, tomorrow morning do you want to ask your parents if we could go exploring different villages and ask about the Hero of Time? Maybe we'd even find some more books about him."

"But Mum and Dad would never let us go, besides you have hardly any interest in him, and you know how I get around a lot of people."

Astrid sighed, she always forgot about his social anxiety. Since there weren't many people in their village it usually wasn't a problem.

"I'd be fun, we've never gone outside of berk before, other that in the woods a bit, we could even bring Toothless and Stormfly to keep us safe. And if you get anxious I'll be right there."

Toothless was Hiccups black Canaan dog and Stormfly, Astrids trained Hawk where not only their best friends, but their protectors as well. Ever since Astrid parents were killed and she was sent to live with Hiccup's family to be fostered two years before. So in order to protect the teens Hiccup's dad bought Hiccup a puppy, all the way from Egypt, and a Harris Hawk from the most experienced falconer in castle town.

"We could try, but don't get your hopes up, you know how my father is."

The next morning after they finished eating and packing up they headed back to berk, and began to formulate the perfect plan to convince Hiccup's dad to let them go.

But when they confronted him, they got the answer they had expected.

"Of course not." Stoick replied, even after all of their excuses. "It's dangerous out there."

He reached up and stroked his long beard then got up from his chair on their front porch.

"But we've never been outside of Berk before!" Astrid proclaimed and crossed her arms. "You can't keep us in this village forever. There's nothing left for us to do here, we've explored about every inch of the boundary's you've given us, please may we go, for just one day?"

Stoick sighted, he looked like he was about to say something, when Hiccup's mother Valka, stepped through the door.

"She's right Stoick, let them go."

"But Val-"

"They're growing up, they need to explore new places, you can't keep them cooped up here forever. There isn't much for a teenager to do here any ways, let them go." Valka stated, then stood and looked at her husband. "They need some freedom."

The large, muscular man sighed, "Fine."

"Really!?" Hiccup exclaimed and threw his arms into the air.

"But you must be back by sundown, and you may only go as far as Castle Town."

Before he could change his mind Hiccup called Toothless, they thanked him, got a map from the library, then started running toward Castle Town.

0o0o0o0

After what seemed like hours of walking they arrived at Castle Town, and boy was it different from berk.

The whole place seemed to be made of stone but other then that it was practically the same as Berk, aside from the size and population. Just beyond the town was the Castle, it was HUGE! The biggest man-made structure the teens had ever seen, which was not actually saying a lot, the buildings at berk aren't very big.

Hiccup continued to stare at the building, until he felt a light tug on his arm.

"Come on pal! Let's go check it out!"

They walked through the town for a while, there were so many people their that they held hands so they wouldn't lose each other.

"Isn't this cool?" Astrid said as they walked out of a bakery.

"Yea, I guess, it's pretty neat." Hiccup whispered then nibbled on his cookie.

"You okay?"

"Yea, I've just never been around so many people before."

Astrid wrapped her right arm around his waist and pulled him closer to her.

"Hey Hiccup, look over their." she whispered and pointed down at one of the many buildings. "There's the library, want to check it out?"

Hiccup's nervous frown was replaced with a grin as his best friend lead him over.

Astrid pushed the heavy wooden door open, a small bell rang as they stepped in. At the front desk was a teen that looked about their age, he looked up from his book when he heard them walked in.

"Welcome to the Castle Town library, the biggest library in all of Hyrule. My names Fisher, if you are looking for a specific book or topic, just ask me and I'll help you find it."

"Do you want to ask him for help finding one?"

"I-I can find one m-myself" He stuttered, then he look down at the endless rows of books. "Actually I might need some help."

"Then go ask him."

He walked up to the desk and took a deep breath.

"Do you have any books here about the uh, legend of the Hero of Time?"

Fisher's face lit up and he pulled a large book of a shelf behind him and flipped through it for a few moments. "We have a few books about that legend. They'd all be in the 30th isle on the right."

"Thanks." He replied then headed down the rows until he found the right place.

Astrid was the first to find the books, there was tree books, one was about the legend of the Triforce and the Hero of Time and the other three were just about the Hero of Time.

They found a comfortable place to sit and read at the back of the library on a couch. Hiccup brushed the dust of the first book it had a double-edged longsword with the triforce engraved on the lower half of the blade, it was called 'Legend of the Blade of Evil's Bane'.

"What's the Blade of Evil's Bane?" Astrid asked as Hiccup opened the book.

"Well let's find out."

 _The Blade of Evil's Bane also called the Master Sword was said to be crafted long ago by the Goddess Hylia, originally called the Goddess sword but was later forged into the Blade of Evil's Bane by the goddess's chosen hero and his spirit Fi; who bathed it in the three Sacred fires a crossed the land that became the Kingdom of Hyrule. One of the flames in particular, Din's flame_ imbued _the sword with the power to repel evil, a power that was essential to defeat Ganon, the Demon King._

The book was quite long, going into great detail on its creation, how it worked, its appearance and more.

"So the power to slaughter everything is supposedly just lying in the forest somewhere for anyone to take?"

"It says that the sword chooses its own master, only a true hero that has gone through great trials of courage, power and wisdom to prove him worthy of welding it."

They flipped through a few other books but found nothing new, they decided that it was also probably time that they should head home. But the two didn't make it half way from the library to the front gate, when an old woman grabbed Astrid's right arm.

Astrid stopped dead in her tracks and tried to pry her arm from the woman's grasp.

"Do you mind?" Astrid said whilst hopelessly trying to pull her arm away from the elder's death grip.

The lady lead them to a small patch of dirt and started writing with her staff.

It took about a moment before she was done, but neither Astrid or Hiccup could make out the strange symbols that she had written out on the floor. The woman walked to the front door of a small house not far from the dirt, she knocked and a short one legged and one armed mad with a long mustache stepped out and began to read her writing. When the man finished he looked shocked, then read it over again, and again, as if he couldn't believe what he was reading.

"But, Gothi," He said "are you sure?"

The women nodded, grabbed Astrid's hand again and pointed to the triangular birthmark on her hand.

The two adults stood in silence for a whilst, long enough that Astrid lost her patience, she needed answers and she needed them now.

"What's going on!? What does it say!?"

"It, it say's, uhh..." the man stuttered.

"WHAT DOES IT SAY!?"

The man looked back at Gothi, who nodded again, then he looked back at the teens.

"She claims that that symbol on your right hand, it's the Triforce."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys I meant to get this up yesterday but didn't have the time, sorry. I'm glad I got positive reviews for this, honestly I wasn't sure if people would even like it. That's about all that I have to say for now.

Astrid stood for a moment in silence, trying to process the words the man had just said, and she ended up bursting with laughter.

"Okay, this is some kind of misunderstanding. It's just a birthmark."

"But-"

"Look, it's almost sundown and we have to get home before sundown, so we have to get going." She said as she grabbed Hiccup's arm and they dashed out of the town.

The teens walked in silence for what seemed like forever, until finally Hiccup spoke up.

"You know he could be right."

Astrid stopped dead in her tracks. "If he was right what would that make me, the reincarnation of princess Zelda? And isn't the Hero of Time supposed to be a guy?"

"Not necessarily,the new hero of time is just a descendant of the original. Also you are not a descendant of royalty so you couldn't be her descendant. And, while you were exploring some I found out that recently they found out that our princess has the triforce on her hand, so they're looking for the hero, but they're only checking guys."

"Are you seriously believing them?"

"I'm just saying that it's a possibility."

"Am I the only sane person left in Hyrule?" Astrid exclaimed as they reached the forest path that lead to Berk.

Hiccup just shrugged and patted Toothless's head.

That night Astrid laid awake in her bed staring at the mark on her right hand. She rolled over and saw her hawk perched on a large dead branch in the corner of he room and Hiccup sleeping soundly with Toothless curled up a the foot of his bed.

Astrid couldn't stop thinking about weather or not they were right, what if she really was a descendant of the Hero of Time? No, that's impossible... right?

After about another hour with still no luck of getting to sleep Astrid decided to go for a walk. She crept downstairs from their loft to their front door, careful not to wake her foster parents took a lantern and her wooden sword and shield off the shelf, just in case pushed the front door open and silently closed the door.

Astrid took a deep breath of fresh air and started down the path in the forest with only her small lantern to light her way. It was probably about 2 am so it was pretty dark out. She arrived a the small cove where she and Hiccup usually go camping. There was a massive oak tree off to the side that she liked to climb, so she wasted no time and climbed up.

Once on the largest branch about half way up the tree Astrid hung her lantern and hung it up on a sturdy branch just above her's. Astrid came to the tree quite often, sometimes to exercise and other times to clear her head. She actually came here to work out quite often too.

The tree was a nice place to sit and relax if she couldn't sleep, sometimes if she was quiet enough the animals would come to the lac in the center of the cove fr a drink. Once last spring Astrid was quiet enough an entire wolf pack came to the cove for a swim.

She laid back against the tree, wrapped her arms around herself and patiently waited for something to come out.

About twenty minutes later Astrid heard a quiet rustling in the bushes. She turned in the direction of the noise and saw something she had never seen before.

There was a large gold wolf staring up at her from the other end of the cove. The wolf itself wasn't the weird park, but the fact that it was glowing was.

As soon as they made eye contact the wolf bolted across the cove and stopped just before he reached the tree. Then he did something equally as strange as his strange golden glow.

"Hello."

Astrid didn't hesitate and ripped her wooden sword from its scabbard and threw it at the wolf. The sword landed in between his paws in the dirt.

"Watch where you throw that thing you could hurt someone!" He barked. "Haven't you ever seen a talking, glowing wolf before?!" then he paused. "No, no, of course you haven't."

Astrid ducked behind her shield, then finally spoke to the wolf.

"Who are you?"

"That's not important, what is important though, is who you are, Astrid."

"How do you know my name?"

"I'm a spirit, and apparently my spirit form is a wolf. I was sent to guide you." He said. "Now come down from there."

Astrid cautiously climbed down the side of the tree. Once she arrived at the bottom she pulled her sword out of the ground and put it back in its scabbard, then sat down on a rock.

"How do I know that your real?"

"Have you not heard of spirit guides?"

"Well, yes, but I didn't actually believe that they existed."

The wolf smiled and after a short pause he spoke again, "I want to show you something."

He trotted up to her, but as he got closer the mark on her hand began to morph into a more triangular shape, then it started to glow the same color gold as the spirit that stood before her.

"Do you see it now." He whispered.

Astrid looked down shakily at her right hand, her mark had changed into the Triforce.

"How, how did you know?" she said and ran her fingers over the mark.

"I just did, you are the Hero chosen to save Hyrule once again." The wolf said and climbed up onto the rock next to her. "Though Hyrule isn't in danger just yet, the Gods sent me to help you build up your strength before its to late."

"So I'm not needed yet."

"Oh you are, just not necessarily needed to save Hyrule yet. But I will help you train for the journey ahead."

Astrid opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by a ear-splitting shriek.

The wolf's ears pined to the back of his head and he started to snarl. "Hide, NOW!"

At the back of the tree there was a large hallowed out area where animals used to live, she and Hiccup made it a bit bigger when they were a lot younger and turned it into a little club house.

The club house was a lot smaller then she remembered, but it was just big enough for her to squeeze in and close the door.

She looked out the small window of the door and saw the wolf disappeared into the bushes as some solders marched out of the forest through the cove. Astrid held her breath and closed her eyes as they passed her, and waited for the wolf to tell her that it was safe to come out.

A very long twenty minutes later the wolf scratched at the door.

"It's safe now, but you should probably get back to your village, I will go with you just in case."

They walked cautiously down the path to the village. Once they were almost their the wolf stopped.

"I can't go with you, other people can't seem me, only you are aloud too."

"OK, before you go, what is your name?"

The wolf smiled up at the girl "Just call me Linkin."

"Well, bye Linkin."

"Stay safe Astrid."


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys I'm really sorry about not uploading. I had exams two weeks ago, then I just didn't write anything, sorry. Plus I saw all of rtte season 3 and it was AWSOME! Anyways I'm also sorry for the huge time jump (or what ever you call it). Well that all for now I guess, but if you have any ideas please send them to me :).

Linkin watched as Astrid entered her village, then returned to the cove.

The forest was very peaceful when he was alone. He had a power to completely blend in with his surroundings, so he spent the night watching wild life come and visit their watering hole.

He was pleasantly surprised that morning when he was told that Astrid was finally of age and it was time for him to guide her. Linkin had been exited about it since the day she was born with the triforce on her hand. Ganan had messed with the triforce about 15 years ago, so when Astrid was born and the princess were a few days later, both with the symbol on the back of their hands the Gods appointed Astrid's spirit guide, and Linkin was delighted when he leaned that it was him.

But now he was a bit on edge, something awful had happened that night. The solders that marched through the cove had children with them, they were taken away and he didn't know why.

He crept over to the path they walked through and examined their footprints.

There were several pairs of footprints, some much smaller than others, some much bigger, but then there were some that didn't look like human footprints at all. They were mutated and almost hoove like, they gave him a bad feeling in his stomach. But he didn't have much time to think about it when the villagers began rushing in to the cove to fill up buckets of water.

Astrid ran in with a very large wheelbarrow and filled it, but was having a bit of trouble pushing it back back.

"Astrid, let me help you." Linkin whispered and pressed his head against the bottom to help her hold it up.

"Thanks." She whispered as he turned himself invisible once more.

"What's going on?"

"The village is on fire Linkin."

"What!? What happened?"

"I don't know yet, but it was something very, very bad."

It took hours and hours but finally the fire was put out. A little over half of the village was gone, but everyone and the animals were safe, but not all of them were a counted for.

An alarming amount of villagers under the age of 18 were gone, actually, everyone under the age of 18 was gone except for Astrid.

But Astrid didn't know that yet, so she began desperately searching for her best friend.

"Hiccup!" She called, but he never answered.

She searched the last remaining buildings for him. Astrid searched her house, the market, the stables and what was left of everything else.

"Astrid." Linkin said as Astrid double check the market. "He's gone."

Astrid didn't move from were she was looking "You don't know that."

"Yes actually I do."

"How on earth would you know?!"

"Astrid if all of the children are gone except for you wouldn't that include your friend too?"

Astrid froze, then placed her hand over her eyes. "No, he, he can't..."

Linkin opened his mouth to speak, but paused when Astrid reached back and ripped her sword off her back and bolted towards the forest. Linkin ran after her, but only managed to catcher at the edge of the forest path far from the village.

"Astrid stop! Where are you going?!" He barked and grabbed the bottom of her shirt.

"I'm going to find them!" She shouted and tried to yank her shirt out of his mouth.

"Not yet your not. Especially not when your blind with rage it's too dangerous. And if the kidnappers are as armed as the rest of the village are saying, do you really think a wooden sword with do any good?"

Astrid sighed, he was right, she wasn't even trained when it comes to sword play, just a few simple moves just in case. She bit her lower lip, put her sword back in its scabbard and placed her head in her hands.

"We will find them Astrid, just not soon."

Astrid pressed her face against the soft fur on his neck and sobbed quietly.

"It'll all be alright." He whispered and placed his paw on her shoulder. "We'll start your training first thing tomorrow."

0o0o0o0o0

"Astrid, get up."

She moaned and rolled over then pulled her blankets over her head.

"Astrid come on!"

Linkin began nudging her side and pulled her pillow out from under her head.

"Fine! I'm coming."

Astrid sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes, then looked around her house. She climbed down the stairs of her small loft and made her way across the floor to a small shelf with two books sat neatly on top. She pulled one of the books of the shelf and looked through it, it was pictures of all the missing children.

It was hard to believe it had already been three years, three very, very long years. The village still seemed so empty and quiet without the children.

Astrid had changed a lot in those three years, because of the long hours of training all most every day she had become incredibly skilled with her sword, and she had become very muscular.

One other thing that had changed is her home. She moved out of her foster parent's house three months before. They helped her carve out the interior of the huge tree in the cove (without killing it of course) and made her a cozy home inside of it.

Another, and more dangerous thing that had changed was something she and Linken called 'the darkness'. Strange monsters had entered Hyrule and were spreading a strange matter that seamed to make the area dark and gloomy.

"Linkin you said that I had the day off training." She said as she flipped through the pictures.

"I know what I said, but the darkness is spreading."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Astrid replied and set the book back on the shelf.

"I'm saying that the monsters are coming faster then expected, and we need to get out there and do something about it, now."


	4. Chapter 4

**I HAVE RETURED!**

 **Hey guys its been a while, I'm sorry that it took so long to get this out. My computer broke about half way through july and I didn't have it again for about a month, but I didn't know how to continue the story, but the other day I got a few ideas that will hopefully help me post one chapter a week. Also a sort of extra long chapter for today because I've been gone so long. I usually shoot for 1500 words but this one is just over 1800, so more stuff for you guys! Also the chapter ends kind of weirdly I didn't really know how to end it so I just went with that. Any ways as always if you have any questions or suggestions please tell me they help out a lot. But I guess that's all I've got for now, read on my friends!**

"Already!?"

"I'm afraid so."

"So what do we do?" Astrid said as she grabbed her old wooden sword off the wall.

"Leave and fight, there's not really any other option." Linken replied "Unless you want to stay back and wait for the military."

"So we need to leave soon."

"Very soon." He said, then realized that she had grabbed her wooden sword. "Are you actually bringing that thing? Don't you have anything better, like a iron sword?"

"No Linken, haven't i told you? They're illegal now unless your in the military." She responded "They're trying to keep people safe, taking all the weapons away, well all but our hunting bows and knives has actually kept crime in Hyrule to a minimum. But on the other hand, that law is not the best thing in situations like this."

"So all you guys have to protect yourselves are hunting bows, knives and wooden swords?"

"Yea, pretty much." Astrid answered as they left her house and headed down the path to leave Berk. "Ok, we have to be really quiet so Stoic doesn't-"

"So Stoic doesn't what?" She heard from behind her.

"S-Stoic, hi! I wasn't expecting to see you here! I'm just going to go for a walk, uh, see ya!" Astrid said and tried to make a quick escape, but naturally it failed.

"And where do you think your going?" Astrid heard as she began to escape into the forest path to leave berk.

"I'm uh-"

"No, I know what your gonna say Astrid, and the answer is no, you know your not aloud to leave Berk, especially after the incident." He said and placed a hand on her shoulder. "And now you definitely can't go, those monsters are getting close, I just hope the military gets here before they do."

"But I've been training for three years, and I'm not just a little kid any more, I'm nineteen! Why wont you just let me go!?"

"Astrid I'm not going to fight with you, your not going and that's final." He roared, Astrid jumped a bit at the sudden change in volume. Stoic sighed and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Come on, it's time for you to go to work any ways."

"Yes sir."

Astrid sauntered in the direction of Berks stables. As soon as she entered the large building a few of the horses whinnied and poked their heads out of their stalls. Stoic's Clydesdale Scull-crusher and Thornado nudged her shoulder gently with their huge noses.

"Morning guys." She whispered and pat their noses on her way by.

Linken trotted over to the other end of the building and grabbed a few buckets, then quickly headed back to Astrid and helped her get the horses fed. Once they had all been fed and given some water, Astrid began Brushing them then taking them one by one out to the pasture.

It took her most of the morning to get them all out, a few of them had to stay back because there hooves were overgrown or they just weren't felling well.

Astrid approached the last stall carefully, she kept her right arm out and gently placed it on the mares muzzle. She had just had a foal a few weeks before, and Astrid was the only person she trusted enough to go near her baby.

Astrid pulled the mares halter off the stall door and slipped it onto her face. Then she clipped her lead on and slowly lead her out of the stall.

"It's all right Lightning," she cooed as she loosely tied the mare a few feet away from her foal. "We don't want him to end up like Epona do we?"

About five years before Lightning had a brown and white filly, she was so wild and unpredictable that Hiccup named her Epona after the Hero of time's untamable horse in the legend. She was never a very tame horse and would go wild if any one approached her, and one day she broke free from her stall and stampeded out of Berk. Astrid had seen her a few times since wondering alone in Hyrule field, she had become completely wild. Some men even have competitions on who can get closer to Epona, or who could tame her. But still she remained wild, no matter how hard they tried to tame her, so now everyone just keeps there distance, but now they call her Epona the untamable.

Lightning whinnied and pressed her nose against Astrid's chest. Astrid backed away slowly towards the foal, she wanted him to get use to humans as fast as possible. He was laying down in the back corner of the stall. Astrid closed the stall door just enough so that the foal couldn't run away, but wanted to make sure that Lightning could still see her baby and he could still see her.

Lightning stuck her head into the stall and watched Astrid carefully as the blond knelt next to the foal. He looked up at Astrid and snorted, he had seen her a few times before, everyday since the night he was born she had come to see him, she sat a little closer each day. The foal stuck his head out towards her and smelt her, like Lightning did each time she came to visit.

Astrid cautiously placed her hand on his nose and stroked his muzzle softly. He leaned against her hand and began to crawl closer to her until he was laying up against her.

"Well that was easy." Astrid whispered as he rested his head on her lap. "He's a lot different then his big sister isn't he?"

A few minutes later Astrid lead the mother and foal out to their private pasture. She spent most of the afternoon cleaning out the stalls, putting fresh hay in them and trimming the other horses hooves before taking them to the pasture as well.

It was around dinner time by the time she was finally done, which was earlier than usual, so she decided to take Lightning for a bit of a joy ride. Astrid saddled her up and tied her foal to her saddle, then they went on a stroll through Berk.

One of the things Astrid had noticed ever since all the children had been taken was that the village was much quieter, though a few babies had arrived since the incident Berk was still nothing like it use to be.

The foal was trotting happily along side his mother, he was always happy to explore the small village, it was much more interesting then his pasture. He enjoyed watching the villagers go about their daily lives, but Astrid kept him a safe distant's away from them, just in case Lightning got too protective.

Astrid had almost completely forgotten about the approaching monsters after spending the day in the stable, at least until she saw that a small bit of the military had arrived.

She slowed Lightning to a stop and tied her loosely to a near by tree, then headed up to the crowd surrounding the men. Linken fallowed closely behind but made sure he stayed completely blended into his surroundings.

There were about twenty men there, all of which had shiny metal armor and were mounted on brown or black horses. However, the man in the front had black armor and a white horse, and he looked quite familiar.

"People of Berk," The man said "I am General Finn Hofferson, me and some of my men are here to help you evacuate Berk and get to Castle-town safely."

He proceeded to give the villagers instructions, they were told to gather only a few of their things, and get on a horse as fast as possible, the work horses where to be hocked up to a carriage and pull the remainder of the public. Family pets were aloud to tag along in said carriage if there was enough room, or if they could keep up with the horses.

Astrid mounted Lightning again and when home to gather her things.

As she packed her things she heard a quiet knock on the door.

"Come in!"

The door swung open and her uncle stepped in.

"So you really do live in a tree." Finn said as he entered.

"Yea, Stoic helped me carve this out last year."

There was a long pause. Before he left to join the army Astrid and her uncle Finn had been practically inseparable. Since her parents were always busy with their jobs all day Finn would keep her company, they'd usually play games, ride his horse and sometimes even go fishing. But about a month after she turned five he left to join the army in castle-town, he was always so busy that he never came to visit, so this was the first time Astrid had seen him since he left.

"Hey, did you know that the tournaments are still happening?" Finn said, trying to break the silence.

"The sword fighting one? I though they had canceled it."

"The princess thought it would be a good way to keep peoples minds off of the monsters." Finn replied.

After a few more minutes of awkward silence Finn decided to leave so Astrid could continue to collect her things.

"So that's your uncle." Linken said, Astrid replied with a small nod but continued to focus on the task at hand. "So what's this tournament that he was talking about?"

"It's an anual thing that happens in castle-town, any man can enter the competition. It works like any other tournament, but of course we use wooden sword and fight until some one gets hit, then the winners battle each other and see who the best swordsman in Hyrule is. Uncle Finn use to take me every year, but when he left dad took me, and now I usually go with the Haddocks. But all it really is is basically a bunch of guys trying to impress girls." Astrid said.

Linken chuckled, then he and Astrid left her home. He noticed that she seemed a bit upset, she was slouching and staring at her feet.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Yea." she mumbled "I just want to help with the whole monster problem, and I want to find all those kids, but no one will let me. They haven't said it to my face, but its probably because I'm a girl, so that automatically makes me some frail damsel."

"Frail?! I've seen you take on a bear with your bare hands, and win!"

"Win? It's not like I killed it or anything."

"Who cares, you still sent him running, and I've never seen any man do that."

"Stoic probably could, once Stoic, Hiccup and I were exploring it the woods and a rabid wolf came out of nowhere, and Stoic grabbed him and snapped his neck like a twig."

"Hey Astrid, I just got the perfect idea." Linken whispered "What if you entered the tournament."

"The tournament!? There's no way I could, Stoic would never let me, and even if he did you have to be a guy to enter any ways. And if you couldn't tell Linken I'm not a man."

"Who said you have to be?"


	5. Authors Note

Does anyone want me to continue this story? I will if you guys do, I'm sorry I left for so long I just didn't feel like writing anymore.


	6. Chapter 5

**I have RETURED! Sorry for leaving for so long, I've been busy, with school stuff, also I just didn't feel like writing. Any ways I am back, and I hope to finish this story and maybe curse of the blood moon as well. This chapter also ends horribly, I didn't know how to end it so that's why it is so bad. Also if you have suggestions of thing you would like to see in the story like a favorite zelda character or idem or place or just an idea in general please tell me. Also I know more about zelda now (I knew almost nothing when I first started the story, but I didn't know that at the time) so if your confused about something ask me and I will answer it as well as I can.**

Lightning soon had all her gear on and Astrids things were packed in small bags that were tied to the sides. The mares young colt was tied to her side as well. Astrid had also got the rest of the village horses ready to go, and soon they began to head towards Hyrule Castle.

She took one last look at the small village before following the crowd of people out of the village.

They had all talked about how different Castle Town would be for all of them. There would be more people, brick roads, tons of shops and everyone would live so close together. But most of all, there would be tons of children again.

It wasn't long before the Castle and its surrounding town was in sight. Astrid scratched Lightning's neck and patted her colt's head. She looked around at all of the other horses and smiled at their calm behavior. They all seemed fairly easy going and happy and they're riders were treating them nicely as well.

Astrid had worked with and trained those horses and their riders for as long as she could remember. Before she took over a couple years before the methods of training were harsh, they often used whips and spurs to scare the horses into submission, but Astrid quickly learned that it wasn't necessary. A lot of the horses responded better to positive reinforcements, pats and treats and anything else she found out they liked. Sometimes a whip or spurs were necessary, but she would never actually hit a horse she would crack the whip behind them to speed them up or spurs with rounded tips so didn't actually cut the horses skin. She remembered everyone being impressed at the new training methods,and Hiccup trying so desperately to help. But he was much better at making saddles then he was at actually training the horses.

The Princess herself was also meeting them, they were told that she would give them jobs and show them which places they were staying, and they'd possibly get a tour of the town. Astrid didn't really know why it had to be the princess who did all that, but she doesn't know much about their policy or any thing like that.

After about ten more minutes of riding towards the Castle the gate began to lower over the gap between the castle and the outside world. The got to the edge of the gap as the gate finished opening. Just like the soldiers had said the princess was there waiting for them.

The princess looked to be about her age, she had a long black braid over her shoulder and was wearing a long pink and white dress. She was sitting on a white horse which had lots of royal equipment with the family's symbol, the Tryforce, all over it.

"Welcome to Castle Town. We are thrilled that you all got here safely." She said, she had a huge fake grin on her face, it was obvious she would like to be anywhere else but here.

Since Astrid worked with horses so much she began to focus more on her horses behavior than what the princess was actually saying. She noticed the princess was holding his reins way to tightly, and his gums had began to bleed. Astrid also noticed the horses ears were pinned against his head and he began to paw at the ground. She didn't have enough time to warn anyone before he reared.

"CYCLONE!" The princess yelped as she fell backwards off her horse.

Cyclone charged towards the crowd of people and the open gate. As he passed Astrid she leaped off Lightning onto his back. She quickly put her feet in the stirrups and grabbed hold of his reins. She pulled back hard until he finally stopped. Astrid then loosened the reins to let him walk a bit and calm down. He hadn't taken them far from Castle Town, so once she noticed his ears were perky and he was calm and happy she scratched his neck and gently kicked his sides. Astrid felt him tense up the moment she kicked him, she looked down and saw massive cuts on his sides, she also noticed marks on his rear.

"No wonder you were so unhappy." She whispered to Cyclone. "I would act up to if people were using spurs and whips on me"

She road Cyclone back to the Princess, who was not very pleased. Astrid got off of him and handed the reins to the princess, who immediately yanked downwards on them.

"BAD HORSE!" she shouted then pulled a whip of her side and beat his neck. "NO! DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!"

"Hey!" Astrid shouted. "What on earth are you doing?!"

"Correcting bad behavior."

"I already did that, now all you're teaching him is that good, calm behavior is bad."

"I should have you arrested for this, this is not how you should treat your princess!"

"Well this isn't how you should treat your horse!"

"What do you know about horses any ways!?"

"She knows a lot in fact," Stoic said and ruffled Astrid's hair. "she train all the horses you see here. Why do you think I fought so hard to get her a job in the stables?"

The princess signed and remounted her horse, and Astrid got back onto Lightning. Soon she finished telling them where to go and what to do.

Astrid wasn't thrilled when the princess said that they would be staying in the town inns until further notice. She and her uncle had stayed there one year when they were watching the tournaments, and they had one small room and one or two small beds. And, because she grew up on the country side she was not pleased at the amount of people there, she felt more comfortable in small community. But its not like she has a choose in the matter, and they didn't have to rescue them, so she was thankful.

They soon arrived at the inn and the soldiers took their horses to the stables. The villagers went to their assigned rooms and got settled in. Astrid was thankful that she was staying alone and hurryed up to her room.

It was the second room on the right on the third floor. It was a small room with only a small bed, a night stand with a couple drawer and a chair and a desk, but it was better then she remembered. She began putting her things away when Linken reappeared.

"So what are we going to do about the whole tournament thing? How are we going to sneak you in?"

"I figured I'd pretend to be a guy and sneak in."

"Seems like a pretty good plan." he said "Want to try and figure out what you're going to wear and other thing now since we have the time?"

"Why not."

It wasn't long after their conversation the transformation was complete. Astrid was in disguise. It was fairly simple with Linken's help.

She had always preferred to dress like a boy and only wear things like a t-shirt and pants unlike the other girls who would wear dresses so the outfit wasn't difficult to find. They were planing on covering her face with a handkerchief so no one would recognize her. She also knew a fair amount of sign language because a older man in her village that she was fairly close to had gone deaf two years before, so they hopped that they could fool them into thinking she was mute.

"We just have one more problem." Astrid said to Linken as she played with her long thick braid.

"And what is that?"

"What are we going to do with this?" She said and nodded towards her braid.

Linken stared at her for a moment, he looked puzzled. "I thought we would just leave it, or tuck in into a hat."

Astrid bit her lip, then looked back at her hair. "It seems like too much of a give away, It'll probably et in the was of combat anyway, I might as well just cut it off."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a very sharp knife, Linken jumped up to stop her.

"Wait until we get there," He said "Everyone might get suspicious if you do it know."

"Alright, I'll wait."

"You should get some sleep, the tournament starts in a few days and you've got work tomorrow."

Astrid agreed with him, it had been a long day and she was tiered and swore. So with very little protest she went to bed.


	7. Chapter 6

I am back again. So in case you don't know an Accolade is the ceremony for when someone is dubbed a knight. That's about all I have to say... But like always if you have any ideas or advice so I can improve please tell me.

Today was the final day of the tournament, about a month after they arrived, and the two finalists were going to participate in the final duel. Astrid had made it through to the end, just as she and Linken had hopped. She wore her disguise, cut her hair so it was barely touching her shoulders and put it up in a ponytail, and she picked a new name, one that she wasn't sure would work at the beginning but it did he trick, Astro. The only person that had found out about her secret identity was Stoic, he had seen her taking off her handkerchief two weeks into the tournament. Though she thought he'd be angry he was actually quite excited about just how well she was doing and offered to help.

She was now standing in front of one of the large gate leading to the arena. The guards had armed her with a wooden sword and shield. Now she was just waiting for them to open up the gate.

The arena was quite big, much bigger than it looked from the benches around the top where she had sat years before. It was big enough that they had had chariot races before. The king and the princess, whose name is apparently Heather, were sitting at the north end of the arena.

Astrid had heard very little about her opponent, but since Stoic had seen him fight before in the tournament he told her everything he could about him. She now knew that he was a bit shorter than her, he was quite muscular, and his name was Scott. Apparently he was quite a dirty player too, and he talked a lot during the duels, which earned him the nickname Snot.

Suddenly the gate shifted, then began to open.

Astrid stepped into the arena, along with Scott on the other side. The crowd began cheering as they got into position and waited for the king to start the duel. Scott look just like how Stoic said he would.

After a few minutes of waiting the king stood up and officially started duel.

It started out just like any other duel she had participated in. They both watched each others moves closely and blocked any attack that the other attempted.

He tried a few different things, but it she quickly learned his favorite move was jumping over his opponent and bashing his sword against their skull. Thankfully she had managed to predict these strikes and quickly rolled away.

She could see that Scott was beginning to become frustrated, his attacks became sloppy and Astrid was able to easily find his weakness. She rolled quickly so she was behind him and when she was in the correct position she jumped and slammed the dull wooden sword against his back. Scott fell forwards on impacted.

"And we have our winner!" Shouted the king.

"This is so unfair!" Scott shouted and stomped off.

The king then announced something Astrid had not heard about before now.

"The official Accolade of Astro will take place three weeks from now in the castle."

Astrid's eyes widened, no one had said anything about an Accolade. This was bad, this was very very bad. They would probably make her take off her handkerchief and they'd know who she really was. She had already gotten into a lot of trouble here and she still doesn't think the princess had forgiven her for what she did when she fist got here, now she'd be in even more trouble.

o0o0o0o

She told Linken everything while she worked in the stables.

"It's not like I can just skip the whole thing." she said while she brushed one of the many horses. "They'd just hunt me down and find out anyways."

Linken opened his mouth, but before he could speak Astrid's boss stepped into the stall.

"Astrid we have a project for you."

"What is it sir."

"A few months ago my men caught a wild horse, but no matter how hard we try we can't seem to tame it, so we are putting you in charge of it." He said "It's in the third building, third stall on the right."

He burst out laughing as he left the building. Astrid just rolled her eyes and began to clean up the tools she had been using so she could head towards this new horse.

The other trainers constantly made fun of her training methods, they preferred the traditional cruel methods. And Gods she hated it when they referred to horses as 'it'.

She walked towards the third barn and noticed an apple tree, so while she passed by she grabbed one for this new horse.

Astrid arrived at the barn and pushed the heavy doors open. She had never been inside it before, but she was told that this is where they kept 'problem' horses. There was suddenly a loud thump against one of the stall walls. It was coming from the third stall on the right.

Astrid approached the horse slowly, the trainers had tied the horse up so tightly that she could barely move, but she had found way to swing her whole body and bash it against the walls. They had tied her mouth shut, they had ropes wrapped around her neck attached to the walls so she couldn't swing her head. Her legs were tied together, and Astrid noticed her hooves were overgrown and she was so dirty Astrid couldn't tell what colour her fur was.

She stepped towards the horse and held out her had. The horse bent forwards and smelt her outreached hand.

"Linken."

"What is it Astrid." he said after coming into view again.

"I need you to find me something sharp. Her mouth's tied shut."

"Sure thing." He said and began snooping through the barn.

"She looks like a horse I use to train, she escaped a few years ago."

A few moments later Linken came back with a small rusty knife in his mouth. He placed it in Astrid's hands.

She raised the knife and started to cut through the thick rope that they had tied so tightly around her mouth.

"Please don't bite me." Astrid whispered as the rope finally snapped. Much to her delight the horse didn't even try to bit her.

"Are you going to cut the rest of the ropes?"

"Not today, maybe when she calms down and trusts me a bit more I will. I don't want to get kicked." She whispered and gave the horse the apple.

"Why did you get that for her?"

"The apple?" he nodded "Linken, horses like apples, apples means good food and to animals food usually means happiness. So if I give her the apple that means she will associate me with happiness, understand?"

"I think so."

o0o0o0o

And she was right. After a few days the horse began to open up to her.

"Hey girl." Astrid whispered as she entered the barn four days after she had first met the horse. "I brought you another apple."

The horse whinnied and gently took the apple from her outstretched hand. Astrid reached forwards and gently scratched the horses muzzle.

"Would you let me brush you today?" Astrid whispered "It would make you feel so much better, I promise. And if you stay calm I may be able to cut those ropes."

She stepped into the stall with her brushed and a knife. The horse began to panic when Astrid first started brushing her, but relaxed after only moments later. It took a couple of hours, but Astrid could finally see the horses brownish red coat and a white stripe down her muzzle.

"See that wasn't so bad." She whispered.

When the horse didn't even move her ear in response Astrid grew a bit conserned and looked up towards the horse. Astrid smiled when she realized what was going on, the horse had fallen asleep. She took that opportunity to quickly cut the ropes, to her suprise there were no bad wounds under the ropes, only a bit of rope burn. Afterwords she snicked out of the barn to let the poor horse sleep.

o0o0o0o

"I'm almost certain that I know this horse." Astrid said about two weeks after she first met the horse. They were leading her out into a small pasture to see if she would let Astrid ride her. She seemed to be fine when she was wearing all of her gear.

"Why is that?" Linken asked as they entered the pasture.

"She's been trained before, and why would she warm up to me so quickly?"

"People do say that you have a 'way' with animals."

"There is no such thing as a way with animals, you just have to treat them with respect and kindness, they can sense those things. But such a wild horse does not become so tame this quickly." she said "Actually, I want to try something."

Astrid let go of the horses reins, and it began to wander off to graze on the other side of the pasture.

"What are you doing?"

"I taught all of my horses to come when called or when whistled to. But there was one in particular, that one that escaped that wouldn't, no matter what I did. But there was one day that I didn't have much to do so I was playing music with some horse grass and she came right over, so eventually I taught her to come when I played a certain song." She pulled a small wooden ocarina out of her pocket. "This use to be Hiccup's. He wanted to be like the hero of legend so badly, but he couldn't play it no matter how hard he tried so I ended up learning to play it."

Astrid played the song on the instrument, and the horse raised her head and trotted over.

"I knew it." she whispered. "You remember that song after all these years, Epona?"

Epona whinnied and pressed her nose against her arm.

Astrid was able to successfully ride Epona, she was even able to get the horse to go over a few jumps.

o0o0o0o

The day of her Accolade came much sooner than she thought, Astrid had completely forgotten about it, she was too happy about the progress she had made with Epona to think about it. Not to mention being able to prove the other trainers wrong in the processes.

"Great job girl" she said and patted the horses neck, they had just gotten back from a very successful training session, Epona was learning incredibly fast.

"Astrid!"

Astrid swung her head around and saw Stoic running over to her.

"Your Accolade." he said when he got to the pastures fence. "It starts in fifteen minutes!"

"Great Hylia." Astrid cursed. "Open the gate."

Stoic did as she asked and Astrid and Epona quickly headed towards the castle.

o0o0o0o

Astrid arrived at the castle with only a few moments to spear. She loosely tied Epona to a post outside the castle. She had managed to stop at the inn and put on her disguise in time as well.

A guard pushed the large castle doors open and she stepped inside. A few other guards lead her though the many halls and staircases until they arrived in the throne room.

The room was huge, but it looked almost identical to the throne rooms in the story and fairy tales she and Hiccup had read to each other years ago. It had a long red carpet leading to the king and princess's thrones and large pillars on the side of the room.

The princess stood at the center of the room with a large iron sword in her hands.

Astrid walked over slowly and keeled in front of her.

"Astro, you need to remove your mask before we can start." Heather said and reached for it.

Astrid panicked and jumped to her feet. Her and Linken had been so distracted while taming Epona that they had forgotten to discuss what to do when the princess removes her handkerchief.

"Astro its fine just take it off."

Astrid looked around the room for anything that would help her escape. The iron sword the princess held caught her eye.

Before anyone in the room could react Astrid lunged at the princess, she kicked her hard in the stomach and ripped the sword from her hands. She then bolted towards the nearest window as five knights began chasing her. Astrid leaped through it, thankfully they were only on the second floor of the castle. She whistled Epona's song as she sprinted towards the front gate, hopping it wasn't closed.

Epona was by her side within seconds, and Astrid quickly mounted her and galloped towards the gate. The army had begun chasing her, so she kept the iron sword in her hand just in case, she really didn't wan to hurt anyone, but she would if she had to.

The guards had only just gotten word of her crime and started closing the gate when she was only a few hundred feet from it. The gate closed very slowly, and they managed to weave between the large groups of knights chasing her. The gate was about half closed, but they where able to ride up and jump across the moat into Hyrule field.


End file.
